A few weekends ago, I kicked off Dîner en Blanc season by attending Charm City’s very first event, which was held at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. It had been a while, since New York City three years ago actually, that I’d attended a dîner as a guest rather than a volunteer. Just showing up […] ...
J'adore
Drink all the French Bubbles at DC’s First Champagne Week
If you missed Champagne Day on October 21, don't worry! Champagne shouldn't be celebrated in a day anyway, it clearly deserves its own week! At least that's what my friends Jess and Alison thought. These two wine pros are throwing DC's first ever Champagne Week, from Sunday November 6 to Thursday November 12. The idea for DC Champagne Week started off small. Jess runs Young Winos of DC, a group that connects people in the District with wine tastings and events. She reached out to Alison, who runs her own wine consulting business Bon Vivant DC, to partner up on a champagne focused event. Jess jokes that Alison took a small idea and blew it up, but Alison retorts that Jess never would've ...
Soirée Guerre des Etoiles au Match de Baseball
Dans la catégorie experience typique Américaine à faire au moins une fois, je vous présente le baseball. Mon premier match c'était à Fenway Park, le terrain de jeu des célèbres Red Sox de Boston, qui est aussi le stade de baseball de plus ancien encore utilisé aux U.S. Tant qu'à faire, autant choisir un stade historique et une équipe mythique non? L'équipe de D.C. c'est les Washington Nationals et elle est plutôt nouvelle. La capitale Américaine avait été privée de son sport national pendant des années, jusqu'à ce que les Expos de Montréal débarquent sous un nouveau nom et branding en 2005, pour la plus grande joie de tout le monde. En contraste au Red Sox et à Fenway qui sont pleins ...
Get Some Travel Inspiration From These 10 Montréal Instagrammers
I'm headed back to Montréal soon and my list of places I want to (re)visit and restaurants I want to check out is growing bigger every day! Since I lived in Montréal for 4 years, I'll be skipping most of the tourist sites and I've been looking for a little travel inspiration from Montréalers on instagram. Here are some of my fave: One of the best decision I ever made in my life was moving across the world when I was 18 to attend McGill University. I'm not going to say when that was, but I had a Nokia cell phone that couldn't take pictures back then so I can't wait to instagram my old campus for the first time! On the social platform, my alma mater mostly sources its content from current ...
Bon Quatorze Juillet / Have a Tasty Bastille Day
I just got back from a week of holiday back home. Other than that tiny little event when France lost the UEFA championship to Portugal, everything was absolutely wonderful. If anything, I feel like I got an early taste of the Quatorze Juillet since there were flags absolutely everywhere and I sang the Marseillaise like 50 times (it's kind of the de-facto soccer chant for supporters of the French national team.) Seriously, my instagram feed (<-- follow me!) turned completely bleu blanc rouge over the last 2 weeks ;-) At least I get to pretend I'm back in Paris a little longer because tomorrow is our national holiday (you say Bastille Day, and that's ok, I say Quatorze Juillet... ...
So You Wanna Visit the White House…?
I'll always remember the first time I toured the East Wing... it was the morning after I met my now husband. I told him I had to make it an early night because I was supposed to be at the White House at 8AM. You know, a typical D.C. excuse ;-) I'd only been in the U.S. and in Washington for 6 months and it was all very exciting for me. I've been fortunate to go inside the White House a few more times since then. And while bowling at the Harry S. Truman Bowling Alley at 1600 Penn* is still on my DC-to-list with slim to no chance ever getting crossed off, I did get to go to the West Wing once and tour the building once during the holiday season. Here what you need to know if you want to visit ...
A Taste of Spring: Cherry Blossoms Everything
Cherry blossoms season is almost done here in Washington. The actual blossoms faded away late last week. Who can blame them? It's been barely 40 degrees for the past two days... and don't get me started on the wind! But officially, the festival ends on April 17 so there's still more than an entire week to celebrate our city in boom and enjoy festival events, like the fireworks on the 9th, the Sakura Matsuri street festival and the official parade on the 16th, or all the different themed eats, which let's be honest are my favourites anyway! Now, I'm not a huge fan of the official "cherry picks" gimmick co-sponsored by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington that sees ...
I’m in a Marseille State of Mind
I've had Marseille on my mind lately. Part of it has been following along my friend Tammy's adventures in house swapping and remote working from Marseille (you can read all about it on her blog Florida Girl in DC.) It's definitely made me look at my mom's hometown completely differently! And the other part, of course, is that Marseille seems to be everywhere lately. First, there was the recent release of the movie Marseille in France. And now, there's the countdown to the much anticipated (at least by me) release of Netflix's first French-language original series Marseille. The trailer looks SO GOOD!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WvqgV7-kSc The show's 8 episodes (52 minutes each) will ...
April’s Fool: A fishy Fête in France…
The origins of April Fools are widely debated but the most commonly accepted explanation credits France for starting the holiday. That's right. It all always come back to the French somehow ;-) According to this theory, April's Fool goes back to 1564 when King Charles XIV changed the calendar around, moving the start of the year from late March to early January. Not everyone was quick to catch onto the change and some people kept celebrating New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st. And these people had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs and so victims of the pranks were called Poisson d’Avril, or April ...
♬ Magnolias for Ever ♪
Des magnolias par centaines | Des magnolias comme autrefois Je ne sais plus comment faire | Les magnolias sont toujours là Current mood today: Claude François for ever! Magnolias will do that to ya ;-) I was looking forward to the beginning of peak bloom for the Washington, DC cherry blossoms this weekend, but the National Park Service has revised the date and pushed it Wednesday March 23-Thursday March 24. Currently blooming, however, are the stunning saucer magnolia trees at the Smithsonian's Enid A. Haupt Garden (right behind the Smithsonian castles.) I think these will hold me over for a few days ;-) ...
